Cannot log into webUI: access denied

SvenR

I am running a Raspberry Pi 5 Model B Rev. 1.0 with Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm).

A week or so ago, I decided to install the Tvheadend package on the RPi mentioned. During installation, I was asked to set an admin username and password - which I did. I logged into the Tvheadend webUI through <IP>:9981 using the set admin username and password and did some settings. Everything worked as expected.

However, for another reason in the process, I decided to remove the Tvheadend package from the RPi using sudo apt remove --purge tvheadend* -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt autoclean -y and start over at a later time.

Today, I decided to install Tvheadend tvheadend_4.3-2155~gfe4df311d~bookworm_arm64.deb again using sudo apt install tvheadend. I set the admin username and password as I did on my first try. No funny characters in neither the username nor password. When I now want to log into the Tvheadend webUI with the set credentials, I get a 403 Forbidden error. 🙁

Ok, maybe I made a typo during install. So, I ran sudo dpkg-reconfigure tvheadend and made sure I don't mistype. Unfortunately, I am still unable to log into the webUI. 🙁

I did a Google search and found some threads on this problem. However, some of them are quite old and refer to an hts home folder, configuration files and daemon arguments that I don't have on my RPi installation... Maybe this is due to the newer version of Tvheadend I am using?

Also, I stopped the current Tvheadend service using sudo /etc/init.d/tvheadend stop and manually started a new instance using the -C option: sudo tvheadend -C - which should give me webUI access with any username and password combination. And it did. I created a new access entry with all necessary rights and password.

I did a reboot and tried again to log in with the new credentials - again: no access with neither the admin user account nor the newly created user account. 🙁

Any ideas what's going wrong or what I can do to better analyze the problem? What kind of bothers me is the fact that everything worked as expected when I stalled Tvheadend for the first time.

Jonas Lang

Totally remove all traces of TVH from your RPI, reinstall again and use a different browser to see if you can access TVH. Sounds like your browser cookies might be causing the problem.

SvenR

Jonas Lang Totally remove all traces of TVH from your RPI, reinstall again and use a different browser to see if you can access TVH.

Is sudo apt remove --purge tvheadend* -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt autoclean -y doing the job? Or are there still any leftovers sitting in a directory even after issuing the --purge option? If so, where can I find these remaining files?

Jonas Lang Sounds like your browser cookies might be causing the problem.

I used Chrome after clearing the entire cache. No access. I then used Edge after clearing the entire cache. No access. I even tried to log in using my iPad from which I have never connected to the Tvheadend webUI before. Access still denied. 🙁

I found /var/lib/tvheadend/superuser and it correctly holds the admin username and password as I set it during installation...

For what it's worth, as a workaround, I added the -C option to the ARGSstring in /etc/init/tvheadend.conf. I think this will do no harm since I am the only user on my local network. However, I can still not access the webUI. Is there another configuration file where I need to add the -C option?

Is this 403 error I get telling me something particular? 401 means "I don't know you" while 403 means "I know you but you're not allowed to log in", right?

Jonas Lang

Have a look at this, it may be a solution for you.
https://tvheadend.org/d/8245-remove-and-reinstall-tvh-solved

Pmb

I've spent two days debugging this. I think there are many things that can go wrong and manifest this error. Mine was a " character in the password for the superuser. The one it asks you to configure during setup. It breaks the JSON encoding in the superuser file. The bastard first accepts it and then fails silently manifesting as a password mismatch I think.

Jonas Lang

Pmb why people use special characters when they create passwords is beyond me. So many applications fail access protocols as a result.

In this case the fact that the original TVH install worked until it was removed and then the user attempted to reinstall it leads me to believe that there is an instance of TVH running on the system somewhere.

Personally I’d do a fresh install of Debian and install TVH again instead of wasting time trying to troubleshoot this problem.

DaveH

Jonas Lang why people use special characters when they create passwords is beyond me.

I think it's a natural attempt to increase the unpredictability of passwords.* I'd rather ask why so many applications don't allow any Unicode character at all in passwords? Why place restrictions on what's accepted, which is especially annoying when they don't say clearly what characters they do accept!

Granted there are other ways that may be more effective but not everybody is an expert.

Jonas Lang

The Configuration Wizard couldn’t be easier to use and once the basic instructions are followed there should be no difficulty installing and configuring TVH properly.

Pmb

It's fine if the application doesn't support some characters but it should not allow the user to use it.
I my case, the config screen that popped up during installation just accepted my password. If it's a symbol on the keyboard somebody will use it in a password.

johnwts

I had tvheadend installed to ubuntu-pc. That tvheadend did work several years without problems. Today it received some update and after that i can not log into webUI anymore.

So, it is same problem and it came by that update.

I did search many pages and did try many of those solutions. Maybe it will work again after some new version, maybe not. But it is not working now even after removing and reinstalling. It looks like there is now nothing i can do but try to find some alternative program.

Flole

Update again.